Papers by Jon Vidar Sigurdsson
Chieftains and shipbuilding, 2024
Viking ships were fundamental to the activities of trade, raiding, exploration, and transportatio... more Viking ships were fundamental to the activities of trade, raiding, exploration, and transportation, and their construction and maintenance required considerable resources and specialized knowledge. Chieftains played a central role in overseeing the production of ships, ensuring that these critical vessels were available to support Viking society's needs. By around the year 1000, estimates suggest that Scandinavia's fleet included approximately 1,000 warships, with a total of around 1,500 ships when including cargo vessels. Given that around 10% of the fleet was lost annually, it is estimated that about 150 new ships had to be constructed each year to sustain the fleet. The Viking economy and society were closely interconnected through complex trade routes, which were protected and managed by chieftains. These leaders, through their kinship and friendship ties, were pivotal in establishing and maintaining extensive trade networks that stretched across Scandinavia and into far-flung regions. Farms, particularly those controlled by chieftains, were key to the economic system, with large workforces, including slaves (thralls), engaged in shipbuilding, ironworking, and other essential industries to support these ventures.
"Viking Age Scandinavia: a “Slave Society”?". In Viking-Age Slavery, edited by Matthias Toplak, Hanne Østhus and Rudolf Simek, 2021
Historians and social scientists have offered many and varied definitions of the term “community”... more Historians and social scientists have offered many and varied definitions of the term “community”. This chapter focuses on specific examples of face-to-face or local communities in order to test the possibilities and limits of the two major analytical approaches to communities: an anthropological approach which identifies ‘community’ as an organic entity, and a symbolic one which considers feelings of belonging and self-identification as constitutive aspects of a community. In this quest, close attention is paid to the question of the stabilization of community’s structures through legislation and institutions, a process that integrates such micro-societies into broader networks of power, and renders them visible to historians. In the first section we examine what we have called a “world of communities”, from periods when communities constituted the dominant element of social structure. Examining ancient Jewish and medieval Icelandic communities, and then early modern Irish and Scot...
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Jul 1, 2015
This book returns to the Viking homeland, Scandinavia, highlighting such key aspects of Viking li... more This book returns to the Viking homeland, Scandinavia, highlighting such key aspects of Viking life as power and politics, social and kinship networks, gifts and feasting, religious beliefs, women's roles, social classes, and the Viking economy, which included farming, iron mining and metalworking, and trade. Drawing of the latest archeological research and on literary sources, namely the sagas, the book depicts a complex and surprisingly peaceful society that belies the popular image of Norsemen as bloodthirsty barbarians. Instead, Vikings often acted out power struggles symbolically, with local chieftains competing with each other through displays of wealth in the form of great feasts and gifts, rather than arms. At home, conspicuous consumption was a Viking leader's most important virtue; the brutality associated with them was largely wreaked abroad. The book's engaging history of the Vikings at home begins by highlighting political developments in the region, detaili...
Viking Encounters: Proceedings of the 18th Viking Congress. Edited by Anne Pedersen and Søren M. Sindbæk. Aarhus, Aarhus University Press, 23-33., 2020
Communities in European History Representations Jurisdictions Conflicts 2007 Isbn 8884924629 Pags 173 188, 2007
A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture, 2004
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 2000
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 2002
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 2002
Communities in European History Representations Jurisdictions Conflicts 2007 Isbn 8884924629 Pags 173 188, 2007
Collegium Medievale Interdisciplinary Journal of Medieval Research, 2006
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Papers by Jon Vidar Sigurdsson
in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland, and which social,
political, and cultural resources went into their creation.
The elite controlled enormous economic resources and
exercised power over people. Power over agrarian
production was essential to the elites during this period,
although mobile capital was becoming increasingly
important. The book focuses on the material resources of
the elites, through questions such as: Which types of
resources were at play? How did the elites acquire and
exchange resources?